U.S. Says Widow of Orlando Nightclub Killer Knew of Attack Plans

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal prosecutor said Wednesday that Noor Salman, the widow of the man who killed 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub last June, knew that her husband was planning the assault that became one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history.

“She knew he was leaving that night to do the attack, and her actions contributed to the deaths of 49 people,” Sara Sweeney, an assistant United States attorney, said during a hearing here in Federal District Court, where a shackled Ms. Salman appeared for the third time since being indicted under an antiterrorism statute.

“I knew when he left that he was going to commit the attack,” Ms. Salman told the authorities, according to Ms. Sweeney, who also said she knew her husband was carrying firearms and a backpack stuffed with ammunition. A lawyer for Ms. Salman, Charles D. Swift, said her statement was a result of intimidation by investigators in the hours after Omar Mateen opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, where 53 people were also wounded.

Still, Wednesday’s hearing, a proceeding to determine whether Ms. Salman could be released on bond, was the first time that the government substantially described the allegations that led a grand jury in Orlando to return an indictment last month. Resisting the defense’s request for bond, Ms. Sweeney said Ms. Salman had “shown herself to be a very calculated and callous person,” in part because she developed a cover story for Mr. Mateen to use in the hours before the June 12, 2016, attack. The police killed Mr. Mateen, who declared his allegiance to the Islamic State during his rampage at the popular gay nightclub.

Ms. Salman, the only person to be charged in connection with the attack, could be sentenced to life in prison if she is convicted of aiding and abetting by providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. She is also charged with obstruction of justice.

In court filings on Tuesday that seemed to serve as a broad outline of the defense’s strategy, and again before Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu on Wednesday morning, Mr. Swift argued that Ms. Salman was neither a likely fugitive nor a risk to public safety. Mr. Swift also suggested that Ms. Salman, who received special education services when she was a high school student, lacked the intellectual capacity to understand or assist in an elaborate plot.

“In this case, it is clear that Noor poses no danger to any person or the community,” he wrote. “Any threat she might have posed is solely a function of Mateen, and that threat has been removed. Unlike others charged with material support of terrorism, Noor does not adhere to a violent religious philosophy.”

Image

Noor Salman, the wife of Omar Mateen.

Mr. Swift, using an alternative name for the Islamic State, also argued that Ms. Salman’s “connection to the crime does not stem from her desire to provide material support to ISIL, but rather her tragic marriage to an individual who allegedly desired to support ISIL, among other terrorist organizations, by attacking the patrons of the Pulse nightclub.”

Investigators do not believe that Mr. Mateen received any specific direction or assistance from the Islamic State, but say he was radicalized online. Before the attack, he had been questioned by the F.B.I. and had drawn the attention of law enforcement for alarming comments.

Although Mr. Swift acknowledged that Ms. Salman, who wept in court on Wednesday, had known of Mr. Mateen’s long-term interest in jihadist ideology, he contended that she had no meaningful knowledge of his plan to attack Pulse. Ms. Salman, in an interview last year with The New York Times, said, “I was unaware of everything.”

Ms. Sweeney offered a decidedly more sinister account and said that shortly before the attack, Ms. Salman and Mr. Mateen had made arrangements for access to the couple’s funds after his death. Ms. Sweeney also said that Ms. Salman had joined Mr. Mateen when he scouted the nightclub.

A crucial component of the defense’s case, which is expected to be heard in Orlando, will be the condition of Ms. Salman’s marriage to Mr. Mateen, her second husband. Mr. Swift said that Mr. Mateen had been “violent and abusive” toward Ms. Salman and had repeatedly threatened her.

In a statement filed with the court, Jacquelyn C. Campbell, a domestic violence expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said that an assessment of Ms. Salman after the Pulse attack showed that she had been in “extreme danger” during her marriage to Mr. Mateen. “This means that she scored within the range where 98 percent of the women who scored within this range were killed, or almost killed, by an intimate partner,” Dr. Campbell wrote. Ms. Sweeney dismissed the assessment’s findings.

Judge Ryu postponed a decision on bond for Ms. Salman, who has been held at a county jail, and ordered her to undergo a psychological evaluation.

Standing outside the courthouse after the hearing, Mr. Swift said that Ms. Salman was being made into a scapegoat. “You know what she is?” Mr. Swift asked. “She’s alive, and Omar Mateen is dead, so she’s the only person they can charge.”

Erin Marie Daly reported from Oakland, and Alan Blinder from Atlanta.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Prosecutor Says Widow of Orlando Nightclub Killer Knew of His Attack Plans. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe